The Secrets of Pirate's Cove
by Darkmoose84
Summary: It's summer of 2026, and Star and Marco are taking a vacation to Muir Beach. In exploring the surrounding area, they find a hidden pirate cache, only to then face the ghosts of some vengeful pirates. This also follows the events of Reality Fracture.


"They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,\Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;\It had been strange, even in a dream,\To have seen those dead men rise." — Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"

Muir Beach, California, June 27th 2026

Marco and Star were laying upon the sand, looking up at the extravagant landscape. The blue sky stretched over them in all directions and expanded out into the horizon beyond their view. Not a cloud was in the sky, and the sun was free to spread its bright, warm rays across the brown sands. The sea before them crashed and frothed as the waves continued to increase as a summer breeze made itself present.

While it was a beautiful sight to behold, though the two were more focused on each other than where they were, as they held each other close and absorbed the sun's rays, its warmth a mirror of their affection for each other.

Turning his attention from the sky, Marco raised his head to look at Star and admired how beautiful she looked today, her hand and flowing golden hair laying on his chest. Her turquoise bikini complemented her lean yet curvy figure, the effigy of a cartoon narwhal on the bottom hip near where Marco's hand was resting. She traced her finger along his toned abs in a circle before looking up at him as well, smiling with delight.

"I'm soooo glad we found time to do this," Star sighed, reflecting on everything that transpired over the past few months.

"I know, right?" Marco rhetorically asked, "Your mom won't stop bugging me about the Mi-Go possibly returning from another dimensional rift, despite the fact that we defeated them last week. And there doesn't seem to be any evidence of them returning anytime soon. Then we also haven't seen those Neo-Eclipsa cultists for awhile as well."

"This worrying is going to get her killed one day," Star replied, "But then we've got these monster separatists we have to deal with…Seriously, why can't we all just get along and be one happy family?" She had this weird awkward strain on her face, as if asking a question to an unseen mass audience to which she desperately needed an answer in order to make hers and everyone else's lives ten times easier.

"They don't want to let go of the past," Marco followed, "Century old wounds still run deep."

"Nah, but Buff Frog has been a real help in all this," Star said, "His diplomacy has let us avoid a lotta nasty fights. But, man, I gotta say, my biggest worry isn't balancing the economy, infrastructure integrity, or creating new jobs…it's making enough time for you."

"Which makes me even more glad we got a weekend free," Marco pushed himself up into a sitting position, causing Star to sit up and face him, "Buff Frog's got this. He'll take care of things while we're gone."

"You're right," Star rolled her eyes, that dorky smile Marco loved so much returning to her face, "I really don't want to turn into mom, overthinking and trying to micromanage every little thing."

"You won't," Marco responded, "You're still Star, the woman I love, and you're still going to do things your own way." With that, he ran his fingers through her hair, only to then pull her close and kiss her passionately, the two of them closing their eyes and connecting with one another. She lifted her hand and stroked his cheek.

"Thanks Marco," she answered, breaking away to look into his eyes, "I love you, too. And we've still got more vacation to get through." Her excited tone was evident in her speech as her eyes widened at the prospects.

"Oh yeah," Marco said with equal excitement, "And if we stick to the schedule I painstakingly made after a week of planning, we'll get to see Muir Woods, take a cruise around Alcatraz island, explore the San Francisco piers…"

"But today," Star interrupted, "you're taking me on a pirate's treasure hunt!"

"I just said I was taking you to Pirate's Cove," Marco raised an eyebrow in bewilderment, "not that we're going to search for their treasure. Historians and anthropologists have combed that area for centuries and believe it was a meeting spot during The Prohibition. They've combed that area for centuries and haven't found anything relating to Bouchard's pirate group or anything like that."

"Maybe not, but I've got better eeeeeyes than themmmm!" Star had that usual singsong tone in her voice, "Now, I'm going to swim for a bit before we go. Meet ya in the waves." She immediately got up and ran towards the waves. Marco just shook his head but knew that he should join her.

Before he did, however, he checked his phone for any important messages. Upon producing his phone from Star's bag, he found that his messenger program had malfunctioned again, showing only account user names instead of display names. They read as follows:

MermaidSkaterJLT: Oscar and I had the same idea as you two today. We're at Venice Beach, catching some rays.

There was a picture that came with it. It was Jackie, having taken a selfie while behind her was Oscar playing his new Yamaha keytar. There was also in the same shot a view of the beach head where Kelly was teaching a small class of maroon-fured wolf pups how to wield what looked like small wooden swords in their mouths.

The next message conversation read as follows:

WhiteTigerTom: Hey, Mewni King. Janna and I survived the Oregon woods and all the bizarre crap that we found there. But she had to give her lightning gun back to the mayor's assistant. This Northwest-Pines woman isn't someone you say no to. She scared me, and that's a feat.

WitchyOuroboros: She and her friends at least lent us a hand when we were fighting those weird monsters. Her husband was a pretty interesting guy; got to trade a few notes with him.

WhiteTigerTom: Yeah, except for the fact that he wanted to ask me ten million questions, like where I came from, what my skin was made out of, what I typically ate for breakfast, etc. It didn't help that he threw that holy water in my face right when he first saw me.

Marco saw one more missed message:

RockinRubi: Have either of you seen this yellow sign? I'm thinking I might send this to your friend Janna as well…

Below the message was what looked like a strange yellow swirling pattern. The more Marco looked at it, the more his head hurt.

He decided to ignore it, since it seemed inconsequential. The fact that there were no urgent messages from Buff Frog made him happy. His eyes turned back out to the crashing, glimmering ocean before him, where his gorgeous wife was now swimming like a salmon attempting to leap upstream against the currents. He ran across the sands and leapt into the water himself, tackling Star into the waves, the two of them spiraling beneath the water before emerging to the surface. They caught their breath then laughed together before passionately kissing again.

After about 15 minutes or so, the couple returned to shore, holding hands as they walked back to the spot where they had left their belongings.

"Okay, NOW you're taking me to Pirate's Cove," Star chimed with excitement, "Been super curious about it all day."

"Alright, alright," Marco laughed, reaching the towel and drying off while Star did the same, "We need to get dressed first, though."

"Covered," Star sang out and waved her wand she produced from their bag. In two seconds, Star was wearing a sky blue sundress, hiking boots, and work gloves, while Marco was wearing black jeans and yet another red hoodie. Even after all these years, this was his signature look. He took the gloves he had stored in the hoodie's pockets out and put them on his hands.

"Thanks," Marco responded, "You know you don't have to use the power of the multiverse for every little thing. But I gotta admit, that was convenient."

"Oh, I know," Star replied, "Just thought it would save us some time. Now lets go!" After star tossed their belongings through another dimensional portal they made leading back to their bedroom, the two made their way back to the coastal paths where their bicycle was waiting for them, seat on the back wheel for Star to sit.

They both hopped on the bike, Star reaching around Marco and holding tight to him as he began to pedal down the dirt path between the bright green grass. The mid-day sun still streamed down on them, and the cliffside still gave a wide view of the great Pacific, the blue-green waters still shimmering below. As they continued to pedal onward, Star closed her eyes and held out her arms, taking in the cool summer breeze and intaking the sweet oceanic aromas.

It was then that Marco hit a bump on the path, causing Star to yelp and throw her arms back around his waist. She decided not to do that again.

Some time later, having traveled around the vast coast, they finally reached the edge of Pirates Cove. They parked the bike and looked down into the steep crag with the jagged black rocks that led to the off-white sands of another beach head with more monolithic black rocks sticking out from it.

"Finally made it!" Star hopped off the bike with enthusiasm, "No turning back now! Come on, Marco!" She then jumped down the side of the cliff and made her way through the crag, her dress poofing and swishing as she leapt from rock to rock.

Marco shook his head and followed behind her.

They eventually arrived at the bottom, their boots hitting the sand below them. Marco looked around at the environment while Star briskly paced back and forth along the dark sands.

"Wow," she said, "It's just as beautiful as the last beach we visited! But now we have to find the treasure."

Marco continued looking around once again at the now familiar crashing waves against the soft sand, offset by the huge, jagged rocks that jutted ominously from the middle of the shore. The area was so beautiful, he wondered if the bootleggers had thrown any lavish parties while they were smuggling their cargo. Still, there was no evidence of any nearby cave or secret hiding spot.

"I told you, Star," Marco began, "there isn't any hidden treasure or anything here. They would have found it over the past cent—"

"Hey, look at this," Star shouted. She was looking at the northern cliffside, and Marco ran to meet her there. "What do ya make of this?"

There was something written in the stone wall of the cliff, something strangely nonsensical. It read as such:

 _Lq gdunqhvv zh wkulyh_

Below this were a row of stones sticking out of the wall, each with a letter of the alphabet on them.

"How could anyone have missed this?" Marco asked.

"What'd I tell ya?" Star grabbed Marco's collar and pulled him close, pointing to her face before releasing him, "Good eyes for adventuring. Now we've gotta solve whatever puzzle this is."

"I'm still wondering how no one found this," Marco lifted an eyebrow, "But moreover I'm wondering what this means. i think it might be some sort of encrypted message that we need to solve. Maybe if we press the rocks in the correct order, something will happen."

"I'm guessing as much that we can't just take this at face value," Star followed, "we need to press them in the order of the revealed message." Marco thought for a moment.

"I don't know of anyone who would be good with codes," he replied, "I'll send this to Janna; she might have a book on it or something." He texted Janna a picture of the effigy, along with a message asking briefly if she had seen this. The two waited for about five minutes.

"What's taking that girl?" Star asked.

"Probably reading over it," Marco responded, "Researching its possible—"

Marco was once again interrupted by the sound of his phone's IM program. He unlocked it and found the follow message:

WitchyOuroboros: Hello. This is Dipper Pines using Janna's phone. What you're seeing is a Caesar cipher, an antiquated encryption system used since the time of the Romans. Remember, go three letters back. It's actually really simple.

Marco looked back at the effigy and began thinking about how the letters were arranged.

"Okay, so three letters back from 'L' would be 'I'…" he started.

"Boooring!" Star groaned, "There's gotta be a quicker way to do this." She flipped out her phone and began browsing the web, "Look, the first site that comes up gives a way to decipher this."

"Oh come on," Marco laughed, "Where's the fun in that? Isn't there some satisfaction in figuring it out yourself? Just a little careful study and…"

"Got it," Star shouted and handed him the phone, "Go on, Marco. Press the stones in this order."

"Tsh, fine," Marco rolled his eyes. He then held up the phone and pressed in the rocks in the order on the site.

I-N-D-A-R-K-N-E-S-S-W-E-T-H-R-I-V-E

No sooner had he pressed in the rocks than a wide panel in the side of the cliff opened, revealing a dark, wet cave.

"That's not ominous at all," Marco muttered sarcastically. Star then eagerly grabbed his hand and proceeded into the cave, using her wand as a light source. What they found, however, was fairly lackluster. It was a small round chamber, filled with old, rotted wooden crates and long emptied rum barrels, all of which looked like they would have fallen apart at the slightest touch. "Okay, this was a little disappointing, but at least we found something interesting that no anthropologist has found, right?"

"Our hunt might not be over yet, Marco," Star said, "Look." She then pointed her wand to the far end of the cave. There was what looked like it had once been a door, albeit splintered into pieces, though it looked as if it has been pushed in from the other side, as though the bootleggers had tried and failed to keep something from getting out. "Oh, we gotta see this."

"Really?"

"Marco, you know we've fought worse."

"I don't wanna push my luck," Marco sighed. He was still curious what lay beyond the splintered wood that had at one time been a door, though he wondered if he should give her the satisfaction.

Still, the two proceeded towards the orifice, tearing away the wet rotted wood and gazing down into the spiraling ancient stone staircase below, into the stygian world, the yawning blackness beyond. They proceeded down the wet, slippery spiral staircase, careful not to lose their balance as the darkness before them became increasingly thick to the point where the wand's light gave little in the way of visibility. Even if she had resorted to a fiery illumination spell from Solaria's chapter in the old spellbook, it still would have given little light indeed.

Eventually, they reached the bottom where they found what looked like a blue phosphorous light, illuminating a walkway that led them onward. Without saying anything, they felt a sense of amazement wash over them as they entered a large chamber filled with glorious golden treasure, loaded in gold lined wooden chests. Also sticking out of several other chests were ancient sabers, flintlock pistols, and enormous cannon balls.

"There really was an ancient treasure…" Marco stammered in amazement.

"I guess it's what you call women's intuition." Star followed.

Indeed, these chests surrounded the large circular stone chamber in the center was what looked like a wooden loading platform attached to a long rope that extended up into the ceiling. Star and Marco briefly looked up through where the rope led, finding that it tunneled upwards a good distance to what appeared to be a boarded up opening leading to the clear blue sky which they had been viewing all day. This might have at one time been an ancient pulley to extract anything the owner of the cave had once needed to extract it quickly without having to haul it up the cliffside. They looked back at the treasure to examine it further.

"This must have been some long hidden cache for either the Spanish soldiers or Hippolyte de Bouchard's pirate crew," Marco stated, "Not just for riches but weapons and other items as well."

"Treasure, schmeasure," Star sang, "I was just more excited about exploring a hidden area neither of us had been."

"Still," Marco remarked while squatting down and pocketing as much of the gold as he could fit in his hoodie, "It wouldn't hurt to take some potential riches back to Mewni. Might help us finally assemble a crew to fix that drawbridge of ours since the last time the Tarrasque decided he wanted to pick another fight with us."

Of course, he didn't notice what was standing right behind him. It wasn't until he looked up from the gold that he noticed Star's horrified expression, her finger pointing to whatever was directly over his head. He stood up and turned around to find two empty black voids that might have held eyes at one point, but as Marco staggered back to see the full aspect of them, he found they were part of a skull that seemed to be grinning at him.

It was attached to a larger skeleton dressed in what looked like the attire of one of Bouchard's crew. As Marco looked at the thing, he noticed that portions of it were transparent, and the whole of its figured glowed with some cold, blue aura.

The figure was there but not there, and soon, more of these spectral skeletal pirates appeared behind it. Each one drew their ghostly swords and began to float towards Marco.

Marco readied into a fighting stance, but it was Star who had first initiative and fired a magic bolt from her wand straight into the ghost closest to him, causing it to fly against the stone wall and evaporate into nothingness. No matter the situation, she would never let her best friend, her king, her husband come to any harm, and cursed be any who would attempt to strike him. Still, this caused the ghosts to fly faster at Marco. Some swiped their swords at him as he quickly ducked and dodged their attack only to respond with an attempted uppercut to one of them, only to have it go straight through them.

He attempted to follow a punch-kick combination he knew well, all of it going through the nearest entity. He may as well have been punching thin air.

The skeletal ghost seemed to smile wider at him before taking a downward swipe, forcing Marco to dodge the attack and watch as its saber cleaved one of the weapons chests in two, splintering it.

"Uh, Star," Marco cried out, "A little help? I don't think I can fight them."

"HOLY KARATE AURA!" Star shouted and blasted Marco with the wand, causing a sky blue aura to surround his hands and feet, "There, try it now!" Two ghosts immediately flew her direction. "SALAMANDER FLAME WALL!" Immediately from her wand flew the image of a small cartoon salamander that floated in the air before breathing a huge flame along the ground and engulfing the ghosts in it.

Marco then attempted a spinning back hand on the ghost that had just attacked him, this time knocking it to the ground before it evaporated into a blue light and was gone.

"Ha," Marco exclaimed, "Now it's a fair fight." Another one flew at him with a raised saber, only for Marco to spot a clear opening and doing a spin kick and knocking it into two other ghosts behind it, all three evaporating into the air.

Another attempted to fire a spectral flintlock blunderbuss at Marco, only to barely miss Marco's head, the round knocking off a few of his hairs before shattering a good portion of the stone wall behind him. Star saw this and grew even angrier.

"WARNICORN STAMPEDE!" she shouted and did a full spin, flawless twirl, and perfect aim at the ghosts, causing a full stampede of battle-hardened unicorns to fly and trample the remaining unsuspecting geists.

"That's all of them, I think," Marco said, catching his breath.

"Uh Marco," Star muttered as she watched something large rise out of the shadows, "I think you spoke too soon." The figure stood much larger than the rest of its ghoulish counterparts. It appeared to have a more decorated uniform, and in each of its hands was a glowing scimitar. It held both swords upwards before flying at Star and Marco.

Star attempted to fire several magic missiles at the specter, only to have them fly through the entity as it advanced. Star and Marco had no choice but to duck as it made a scissors like motion at them with the heavy swords and slicing a chunk of the wall behind them. It may as well have been wielding these two handed weapons as though they were butter knives.

The wand's magic clearly didn't work on this thing. What could they do? It had now turned back and began advancing slowly upon them. Marco thought for a moment about the puzzle that unlocked the door, how these things must have thrived in the darkness.

"Star," he said, "aim up."

"What?"

"Just do it," Marco continued. And with that, Star fired another magic missile up through the pulley tunnel, shattering the wood at the top and letting the noon sun shine down through the cavern.

The entity roared as it was set ablaze in a bright blue flame. After another minute of horrific, gelatinous moaning, the large ghost vanished into the glorious solar light. All Star and Marco could do was stare at the empty place it once stood before looking at each other.

After a minute, the quickly hugged and kissed each other, having survived yet another harrowing yet exhilarating battle together.

Several hours later, as the evening sun began to set on the distance over the Pacific waters, Star and Marco sat on the beach after having brought with them two exceptionally full treasure chests. Star had setup a tent on the beach that, when one entered it, was much larger and lavish than it appeared on the outside. Marco had made a Doctor Who and Harry Potter joke at this before the two of them laughed.

Janna and Tom had teleported in to join them. Tom had started a camp fire and was now roasting some fish for all of them over it, while Janna was scanning the treasure chests with a spare Psychokinetic Energy Meter she had gotten from that weird Dipper Pines character. Both Janna and Tom stopped their endeavors for a moment (the fish would be okay to roast for a little while, and the spectral aura would still be lingering) and decided to cuddle together on the beach a couple of meters from Star and Marco, who were both still enjoying the setting sun.

"Well, Star," Marco began, "I gotta admit, I'm glad you talked me into coming here. We discovered something new together."

"Yeah, it was kinda dangerous though," Star followed, "But I can't say I'm sorry we did it."

"it's just proof we have many more adventures ahead of us," Marco continued, "And I look forward every day to what you and Mewni have to bring."

"I love you, Marco," Star smiled and kissed him again.

"I love you, too, Star," Marco returned her kiss, "I couldn't be happier. There's nowhere else I'd rather be than here with you."

Resting in her husband's arms, Star then turned her gaze back to the sunset. There was a sense of beauty she could not deny about this world. She looked across the rippling light and could not help but feel some sort of strange connection to Earth and to something beyond it, some greater life that dwelt beyond the multiverse and beyond their consciousness. It was something that was calling out to her that she would gladly accept.

At the same time, she desired this similar light to be within her, to grow and form new life inside of her. She felt this deep down urge each time she was near Marco, desiring to fulfill what she knew she had always wanted and create a new life together. Perhaps it would be a prince or a princess, but it would be something the two of them could create together.

Perhaps it would come in a year, perhaps two, but as long as they were together, they would see it through. And as she lay next to her husband in the lavish bed within the expanded tent, she urge was ever present. At the same time, she continued to want to spend more time together with him before they had this. Just two more years, and a massive change would occur when Princess Selene and Prince Sol emerged into their lives.

For this weekend, however, they would enjoy their cruise across this beautiful area that was San Francisco.


End file.
